Virtual Training

Second Life is not just for sex anymore. Check out the legitimate businesses springing up.

Dozens of hospitals, medical schools and health foundations have staked out space in the online community Second Life, where participants can build their own virtual clinics and stage just about any training drill they can imagine. Interest is so high, both Stanford University and the University of Michigan last month held workshops on medical training and education in the virtual world.
Virtual training also typically costs less than a full-dress drill with hired actors. It costs $1,000 to buy virtual land in Second Life from the game’s creator, Linden Lab, and about $300 a month to maintain control of it. Programmers can then build their own virtual facilities or pay an expert to do it for them.

Ramesh Ramloll, a computer scientist at Idaho State University, rents out generic hospitals and disaster scenes he has created in Second Life for $185 a day. For clients who want more realism, Dr. Ramloll will work from blueprints and photos to re-create actual facilities. He charges up to $150,000 to build a full-scale virtual hospital, complete with several hundred patient rooms, interactive medical equipment, ambulances, parking lots and familiar scenery. A replica of a smaller clinic, with 20 rooms, costs about $10,000.

Other Second Life pioneers are trying to give future health-care practitioners a deep empathy for their patients and a better idea of how to reach out to them. One simulation gives students a glimpse into the world of a schizophrenic, besieging their avatar with disembodied voices whispering things like “You’re a worthless human being.” The goal: to give a sense of how hard it is to think clearly or to communicate what you need to get across in that situation.